FLAWLESSINFLANNEL

FLAWLESS IN FLANNEL

Text: Jenny Wikman / Photo: Emelie Voltaire

Do you have any everyday favourites in your outdoor wardrobe? I posed this very question to the Addnature crew working on this magazine. But actually, it was really intended for one person: my most hipster colleague, who instantly suggests a "bar hang" every time I suggest meeting up in the woods over a campfire. A “bar hang” can only mean one thing: Oscar will go to his (very fashionable) closet and start digging around for the same shirt he picks EVERY TIME!

Name a trendy item and he’s got it. Arc’teryx pants? Sure. The North Face Duffel? Check. Patagonia’s iconic down puffy? Please… Then he shouts out: “Fjord Flannel!” Genius. An insulated shirt – actually, it’s both a shirt and a jacket. And who doesn’t love flannel? I imagine that when Yvon Chouinard was forging his climbing pitons and selling them out of the boot of his car in Yosemite, he didn’t think he’d be making flannel shirts for a young, upwardly mobile Swede with an e-bike, nice flat and rope shelving. But, here we are! Patagonia is a global brand, and the company that spent the 60s, 70s and 80s phasing out cotton from its line in favour of fleece and synthetic base layers has become a cult. Maybe wearing flannel around town still has some rebellious cache, but it’s become ubiquitous and is worn by countless hip young things with stable jobs and diversified stock portfolios to fall back on. Some things from Chouinard’s 50s Yosemite days – the prestige that comes from jamming a crack, VW camper vans, or effortlessly whipping up some bearnaise sauce on a Trangia kitchen – are still alive and well in the outdoor world. Flannel, on the other hand, has become truly mainstream. Now the lumberjack uniform isn’t reserved for rural hunks chopping wood; you’re just as likely to see it on a suburban Tinder profile as you are out in the forest. The difference might be the label sewn on the chest, which signals yet another trendy feather in the cap: an environmental conscience. In true Patagonia spirit, all layers in this brilliant garment are organic cotton or 90-100% recycled synthetics – even the insulation that makes it suitable for spring and autumn temperatures. Paired with the company’s long history of counteracting chemicals in the cotton industry, combatting ecosystem-threatening dams, limiting their own economic growth and donating 1% of their sales (profit or not) to charity. This this adds up to a garment that Greta would be proud to wear. An impeccable uniform for hiking in the woods, or fishing for compliments in your neighbourhood.